Paris and Nicole Back as 'Interns'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Move over, Monica — there are some new interns in town.
Ditzy debutante Paris Hilton (search) and her wild-child cohort Nicole Richie (search) return Wednesday night with the premiere of "The Simple Life 3: Interns," (search) at 8:30 p.m. EST on FOX.
This time around, the dynamic duo hit the road in a Greyhound bus to work as interns for a slew of unfortunate businesses, ranging from various jobs on the ground at an airport near Allentown, Pa., to a small TV station where Paris is a weather girl.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}They also do a stint as psychics, in an auto body shop and at a firehouse.
Richie, newly slim and glamorous after losing the weight she says she gained in rehab, told FOX News that she and Hilton have turned down producers on some of the things they've been asked to do.
"I didn't want to poke fun at people," Richie said in an interview last week. "I wanted this show to come off like we're just having fun and not laughing at the expense of other people."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But New York Post TV critic Linda Stasi, who panned the fish-out-of-water farce's third installment in her column Tuesday, does indeed find the show insulting — to viewers' intelligence.
"What started out as fun and even funny — two rich Beverly Hills half-wits go live on a farm with an actual family — is now grim. And insulting ... 'The Simple Life' plays as though a lot of time has been spent thinking up the 'spontaneous' stupidity that's supposed to be real."
As for the reality show's "Chicken of the Sea" moments, as Stasi puts it, referring to Jessica Simpson's famous mishap on her reality show "Newlyweds," Hilton wonders aloud on one bus trip: "Is Jersey a city or a state?"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The show's third go-around has not been without controversy. Proposed filming at a New Jersey school provoked heated opposition from parents who felt that Hilton, most famous for her X-rated video, is not a good role model. They also feared the show would hold their community up to ridicule.
Meanwhile, Bunim-Murray Productions, the company that produces "The Simple Life," is also disputing allegations that a deer was illegally killed so that it could be gutted on camera by the sexy socialites.
But so far, nothing has been able to stop this "Simple"-minded tag team. The modern-day "Beverly Hillbillies" was a ratings hit in its first two seasons, launching the careers of its two stars. And a fourth show could be in the future, Richie implied.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"We go with the flow and see what happens with every season," she told FOX News.